


Chapter VIII: Consuming

by SallySS



Series: Love Trunk [10]
Category: Claymore
Genre: Asphyxiation, Awakening, Bisexuality, Blood, Choking, Dismemberment, Explicit Language, F/F, Gore, Graphic Body Horror, Homosexuality, Minor Character Death, Partial-Awakening, Self-Mutilation, Strangulation, Torture, Trans Male Character, Transformation, Verbal Abuse, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 23:53:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10292753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SallySS/pseuds/SallySS
Summary: Excerpts from the daily life of Rona, a new addition to the warriors known as Claymore, led by the mysterious Organization. Follow her through her struggles and triumphs as she fights to survive against the flesh craved yoma and awakened beings.-The showdown is at hand and it will push each warrior to their limits to stay alive.





	

Chains clinked in time with the duo’s steps, Lune and Iris walked in line with each other, their arms linked with Abdima’s, dragging her along between them with her hands and feet bound. Facing backwards, Abdima kept an eye on the group’s flank, making sure no one crept up from behind. Lune was clad in the basic uniform, hair laying gently over one shoulder and her mind lost in thought; the only thing that really set her apart from other warriors was that she carried two claymores, hers and Abdima’s, but other than that she didn’t seem too unique in appearance. Iris was dressed much more eclectically, a patchwork of snug fitting platemail armor and chainmail over leather clothing. The metal alloy of her armor looked different than the type used by the other warriors of the organization, most likely something created solely for their special unit warrior. She had weapons of all sorts on her, hung on her hips, strapped to her arms and legs, and the largest of them strapped to her back; the contrast between the warriors was innumerable. Even Abdima’s armor was quite distinctive. She wore the white cloth uniform, but overtop was an odd piece of armor that covered her neck like the black dickies the other warriors wore, and ran down her center to cover her surgical scar. It was four pieces in total, hinged together in three places. The first hinge sat on her clavicle, the second was situated on her diaphragm, and the third above her pelvis; it allowed a wide range of motion while still protecting such a delicate spot. The warrior’s hair was short, almost shaved completely off and although her skin was light, the pale scars that riddled her body were eerily noticeable, etched deep in her flesh.   
  
Rona’s group was in position, hidden in the tree’s foliage, crouched low. They suppressed their yoki to such a degree that the focus it took to maintain it made it almost impossible to breathe. They had to wait till their targets were boxed in by the four of them.   
  
Rona bit her lip, trying to keep focused as she took a breath steadily. Something made her uneasy, had they been spotted? It was the chains; the sound had shifted its rhythm barely a fraction of a second but she was sure they were known now, she had no choice but to react. Not a moment after she dropped from her branch did she almost get skewered by the sharpened end of a halberd thrust towards her with intent to kill; had she stayed a moment longer she’d have been dead. Stephanie jumped into the fray, going straight for Lune’s head, looking to press her physical ability and to distance Lune from her flailing bound teammate.   
  
Rona had all her focus on the end of that weapon as it struck out at her like a viper, piercing the air and retracting with such speed it was nearly one solid blurred mass. She didn’t even have the opportunity to grab her weapon off her back, but at this point wielding it would only slow her down. The blade grabbed nicks of her flesh, cutting cleanly through her like her person was nothing but air, but Rona was just quick enough to keep it from piercing her through; the damage maintained on the very outskirts of her limbs. Iris wielded this seven foot long weapon with a single hand, though the strength of her thrusts suggested otherwise. Her speed was amazing, but to a degree underwhelming; as a single digit, it was obvious she was holding back. This did not bode well for Rona, she was so focused on keeping her core out of the way of that blade that she wasn’t even healing herself, getting cuts on top of cuts.   
  
“Well, for such a low number, you certainly have a fair amount of stamina, you haven’t slowed down a titch. You won't release your yoki though, you’re letting me cut you to pieces. Do you have something against contorting that pretty little face of yours? Because it won’t matter what you look like when you’re dead. Now squeal little piggy!” Iris thrust her weapon at a speed she knew utterly surpassed her opponent, skewering Rona through her gut. She pulled out another favorite weapon of hers, a thick chain with weights on either end, spinning it overhead before lashing out and having the thick heavy chain spin and constrict tight around Rona’s throat. Iris pulled on both her weapons, lifting Rona up into the air, impaled upon her weapon, examining her handiwork. “Disappointing.” Iris turned her gaze to Lune as the silent warrior struggled to keep Stephanie off her, this battle was apparent that the tables were turned in the favor of Rona’s team. “Do you need a hand over there? I wouldn’t mind killing both my competition in one day and claiming number one for my own.” She chuckled.   
  
Rona had a grip on the weapon piercing her through, holding her weight up so she didn’t impale herself further. With Iris’ attention diverted, Rona unsheathed her claymore and suddenly let go of her grip, falling down the length of Iris’ halberd and aiming her weapon to make contact. 

 

When the dust settled, Rona shakily stood up on buckling knees, pushing the handle of the halberd the rest of the way through her body and hurriedly unwinding the chain from her throat to breathe, though holding tight to her weapon that failed to make contact with anything other than ground. She hadn’t even seen Iris move, and yet she was far out of range now, though Rona had gotten her attention.   
  
“Oh you little vixen, I thought you would have tried to heal yourself, not take a swing at me. No matter, it’s not like you came close.” Iris taunted from a few feet back, unscathed.    
  
Rona’s body wavered, she needed to heal herself badly, but those murderous eyes were set on her, and the second she would take her attention off Iris to heal, that’s when the number three would strike. She stood up straight, despite the gaping bleeding hole in her center, trying to restrict bloodflow to that area.    
  
“Oh my, you think that putting on a brave face is going to save you? Well if you couldn’t keep up with me before, you certainly aren’t going to be able to with  _ that _ wound. But you seem intent on finding out, so let’s see!” Iris grabbed her claymore, looking to inflict some serious torture on the poor weakling who dared challenge her. Rona readied her weapon and tensed, waiting for that first strike. When Iris lunged, Rona didn’t dodge. She made it look like she was going to go toe to toe with the number three yet again, but she simply stepped just enough so that Iris’ weapon slid into the gaping wound her halberd made. Granted, the weapon’s size difference made the wound larger, but the lack of resistance made the weapon go farther than anticipated. With the raw speed Iris possessed, it demanded perfect precision of the wielder; any miscalculation like this gave Rona the split second opening she needed, and she went for the throat. 

 

It was barely a nic from the very tip of Rona’s sword, but the blood was apparent. Rona had landed her strike.    
  
Iris stood back, gingerly touching the small cut to her neck, looking at the blood on her fingertips. “How the hell did you…” It hadn’t even dawned on the warrior her mistake.   
  
Rona now focused on healing, releasing her yoki and letting the fibers of her flesh quickly weave together while her melodramatic opponent wasted time mulling over her disbelief.    
  
Iris wiped the blood off on her pants and straightened up, turning to the other feuding warriors, “Lune! Why don’t we switch opponents, I think you’ll have fun with this one, she’s crafty but not too strong.”   
  
Rona’s stomach dropped, she couldn’t let them swap positions but she couldn’t just let Stephanie kill Lune outright; killing these warriors would bring dire consequences from the organization. Rona grabbed her claymore and swung at Iris to get her attention. “What, nearly pissing your leathers over a number 28? Worried I might take your head with the next go?” She taunted through sharpened teeth, though not even fully healed from the last clash with her opponent.   
  
Stephanie gritted her teeth, not sure what to do. She could fend off Lune no problem, but Rona certainly didn’t look like she was good to go another round despite her taunting. While Iris wasn’t fighting at full strength, Rona landed her hit, and if Heslin the poison should kick in soon. 

 

Before Stephanie could make up her mind, she watched Iris pluck Heslin out of thin air, holding the boy by the throat as he tried to plunge down at her from the trees. She took the boy and threw him down to the ground, stomping down on his face with a sickening crunch, Heslin’s claymore clattering to the ground as his body went limp under her boot.    
  
“Roaches crawling out of every crevasse! I was amused at first but now i’m just irritated!” Rona watched as Iris took a step and began to turn towards her before simply disappearing from her sight. In what seemed a simultaneous moment Rona could feel the hot sparks of clamore clashing with claymore against the back of her neck, Stephanie’s weapon the only thing between her and a swift beheading.    
  
“Rona, Go; this is too dangerous for you now. Take Heslin and get out of here.” Stephanie threw Iris off her, standing between her group and theirs. 

 

“And miss all the fun?” Rona pointed her sword at Lune who looked even more worn out than her. “Let’s prove to them their numbers are meaningless to us.”    
  
“I like the way you think knifey, don’t get yourself in trouble now.” She gave you a playful nudge before charging at Iris. The two warriors clashed like the earth and sea, loud and powerful but neither buckling to the other.    
  
“Yeah, same to you.” Rona calmed her yoki and studied Lune. She was claimed to be a number 10, but her arms were quivering just wielding her weapon this long and she was huffing and puffing from parrying Stephanie. Rona lunged at her, easily keeping up with this opponent. She pressed her, making Lune take steps back to keep from having her arms buckle under her own sword. Rona took a particularly powerful swing and watched as her sword lodged itself into Lune’s. The two warrior’s paused and looked at each other in equal confusion.  Rona heard Delilah’s warning call from the treetops, a strike to her left side. She saw nothing to her left, but she trusted Delilah's word and pulled her sword free, spinning on her heel and striking to the left and hearing the clear ring of swords clashing. This made Rona’s heart race fiercely, she’d never fought blindly, and she was fully dependant on a warrior with no yoki abilities to tell her how to defend herself. 

 

Rona swung in the same direction in a large arc, but Lune had already moved. Thankfully, Lune hadn’t caught on yet to Rona’s helper, and when Rona heard the signal to protect her back she lifted her claymore overhead and had it run parallel with her spine, the sharp snap of a sword tip being stopped in its tracks made Rona shudder. These parrys were happening closer to her body than she was comfortable with, but thankfully the secret code was working. Rona whipped herself around, bringing her clamore down at a strange angle, one that was difficult to parry, and she caught a glimpse of Lune parrying her, her arms beginning to fail under the pressure, but just as quickly as Rona saw her, Lune has disappeared from sight. 

 

Rona hadn’t heard any warnings from Delilah and it made her worry, she was completely out of her element. ‘Her trick is to go completely unseen and unsensed, she’s not used to actual combat and she is tiring quickly.’ Rona went over and kicked Iris’ abandoned halberd up in the air and grabbed it, launching it over above Abdima who was abandoned on the ground. Just as she expected, it struck right into Lune’s shoulder as she tried to free her teammate, the other warrior finally becoming visible. “This is a fight between us. If you think you can’t survive, I suggest you stand down.”    
  
Lune shook, gritting her teeth and pulling the halberd free of her shoulder, dropping the weapon and holding her injury. It seems as though, unlike her teammate, she was extremely sensitive to pain, eyes bubbling up with big fat tears and her lip quivering pitifully. She looked up at Rona with her big sparkly doe eyes and the moment Rona blinked, she wasn’t staring in the eyes of her opponent, she was staring back at Adaira.    
  
“Please, Rona, I don’t want to fight you.” It sounded just like Adaira, the pain in her voice going straight through Rona. To see her lover on her knees, injured and crying, it put a knot in Rona’s stomach.    
  
She dropped her Claymore and took a careful step forward, watching Adaira curl up in pain. She stalked over quietly and dropped to her knees in front of her, gingerly lifting her face and taking in the sight of her, pushing her hair back gently and rubbing her thumbs along her tear soaked cheeks. “I didn’t think this would ever happen…”   
  
Adaira sniffled, leaning into Rona’s gentle touch. Her face was slightly quizzical at the statement, waiting for Rona to elaborate on what she meant.   
  
“I never thought someone would be stupid enough to impersonate  _ my wife _ .” Rona said coldly and grabbed the imposter around the throat, forcing her to the ground and squeezing Lune’s throat with all of her being.    
  
Lune’s legs flailed and kicked out underneath her as she tried to claw off Rona’s hands that were a vice around her throat. Trying everything to free herself, Lune’s eyes turned yellow as she let her yoki pour through her, but this only served to fuel Rona’s anger and she just squeezed harder. The skin on Lune’s throat began breaking and bleeding where Rona’s nails were digging in, as she slowly and maliciously crushed the number ten’s throat in her bare hands. Rona could feel the warrior underneath her trying to awaken, but every time Lune tried to push through her impending unconsciousness Rona would lift the warrior’s head up and smash it violently back down into the ground. 

 

**_“Just fucking die, just fucking die you filthy piece of shit!”_ ** Rona couldn’t feel it, but her own body was contorting from the rage of another warrior having the audacity to take the form of her lover. Her eyes were lethally focused on the struggling form under her as Lune’s lips turned blue and she drooled all over herself, trying desperately to breathe.   
  


Rona’s world momentarily went black, and for a second she wondered if she went too far and awakened, but then the overwhelming pain in her head came through and she could feel her broken eye socket and her body laying on its side on the ground. She sat up, no longer with a flailing warrior underneath her, and opened her good eye to see that Abdima had smacked her upside the head with her chunky wrist shackles, sending her sprawling quite a ways.   
  


Lune coughed, finally able to breathe, and rolled over to quickly free her comrade of her restraints so she could protect her. Abdima stared at Rona with death in her eyes, just waiting to be freed.   
  
Rona pushed herself to her knees, reigning in her yoki and focusing on healing her face, watching as Abdima rotated and flexed her wrists.   
  
“Thanks cupcake. Sit tight and don’t move.” Abdima walked over and stood in front of Rona, lifting her foot up, looking like she was going to kick her in the face. Rona grabbed her ankle and grappled her to the ground, getting her in a leg bar, bending her knee backwards. Normally that would make any warrior squeal in displeasure, but this only served to make Abdima laugh, she intended this; she was making it clear to Rona that she didn’t feel pain. As a response, Rona received a swift metal boot to the jaw, almost strong enough to bust her teeth in. 

 

Rona held her face as it radiated in pain as Abdima got to her feet and grabbed a fistful of Rona’s hair, dragging her along. Rona grabbed onto her captor’s wrist and pried herself away, though losing quite the chunk of hair in the process, scurrying to her feet before Abdima could strike out at her again. She realized she was weaponless, and her opponent was much closer to her weapon than she was.    
  
Abdima saw her glance towards her weapon. “If you think for a second i’m going to let you get that, you’ve lost your damn mind.”    
  
“I’d like to see you fucking stop me.” Rona sneered, taking off in a full sprint towards Abdima, the other warrior getting a crazed look in her eye, embracing the challenge, and sprinting straight towards Rona for the deadliest game of chicken. Rona reached her hands out right before they clashed, gripping onto her collar armor tight and letting her feet slam into Abdima’s ankles to make her lose her footing, hoisting the other warrior up over her head and letting Rona slip underneath on her rump. With a quick tuck, Abdima rolled harmlessly back onto her feet behind Rona and raced to grab the snarky bitch before she could even think to wrap her hand around that sword.    
  


Rona’s fingertips graced the pommel of her sword, giving her a glimmer of hope as her fingers began to curl around the hilt, but she was violently yanked back by the ankle before she could grasp it properly. Abdima forced Rona to her back, sitting on her stomach with her knees in the bend of the elbows so Rona couldn’t wriggle away, lifting her fist up high and bringing it down with crushing force. Rona’s ears rang as her face was bludgeoned over and over again, her cheek bones splintering again under the repeated relentless blunt force trauma; but Abdima had barely begun. Rona was afforded but a fleeting moment to breathe and clear her mouth of blood before she felt fingers digging into the skin by her collarbone, the digits forcing their way under her skin and making her cry out in pain as it punctured into the tender flesh underneath and burned like fire. As much as she tried to struggle, her body felt like lead; most likely thanks to Lune getting her own revenge and enjoying the torturous display from the sidelines, making it so she couldn’t even muster the strength to wriggle an arm out to protect herself from the brutal onslaught. Rona’s eyes shot open when she felt the warm huff a breath on her cheek, eye to eye with her punisher with blood pounding behind her ears and pooling in the back of her throat. Abdima’s lips peeled back into a wicked grin before she lent down and encompassed her teeth around the tender flesh of Rona’s cheek, biting down swiftly and mercilessly, in a swift motion sitting back upright and tearing away any flesh that sat between the cheek bone and the bottom of the jaw, leaving a gaping hole in Rona’s face. 

 

It was anguish being pinned under such a sadistic warrior, to feel yourself humiliated and torn to pieces with hands and teeth, helpless and squealing like a stuck pig. 

 

Enough. 

 

This psycho was about to learn just who she was messing with.

 

The loose dirt around the two began to shake, and Rona stared back at Abdima as her eyes flashed yellow and made it clear she wasn’t stopping there. She could feel Lune’s influence over her wavering, not used to physically controlling others; it felt good to put such a high ranking warrior in their place. Rona began to lift her arms up, picking Abdima up with her, no matter how much the other struggled to hold her down. She tossed the brute, making her tumble quite a ways and Rona could finally get to her feet, quite the sight with a hole in the side of her face baring her teeth and her front all soaked in blood, the rag of a shirt she had left barely clinging to her. She lifted her hands up in front of her, looking at her scuffed and torn up palms, then up at Abdima as she lifted herself from the ground. The tingle of yoki as it surged through her made her shiver, her skin bubbling and writhing like there was a completely different entity co-inhabiting the same vessel, trying to get out. Halfway down Rona’s biceps, things began to protrude out of her skin; chunks of misshapen and crude plates that were some cross between stone and metal, colored a dark obsidian. They jutted out and overlapped down the length of her arms, growing in size till they reached her fingertips, producing large claw-like appendages that curved like hunting knives, ready to gut anything that drew near. Her palms were massive, almost two and a half feet across, and the claws that were now her fingers drug on the ground when at her sides from the added length, and each finger was bigger than her head.

 

Rona flexed her new modifications, they were surprisingly lightweight on her for how thick and strong they were, her claws glinting in the small amount of sunlight that passed through the tree canopy above. Her face began to move of its own accord, the bone and flesh finding its way back to the proper placement, her cheek filling in what it was missing. She could feel herself salivating, her body hot from the temptation of release, but this was nothing new, something easily put to the back of her mind for now. She wouldn’t be able to maintain this forever, but she did have enough time to teach these two warriors a lesson. She lifted her large appendages, pointing at the two gawking warriors. “Pick up your weapons and fight me, or die where you stand.” 

 

Lune gave Abdima her claymore, taking up her own and shyly stepping behind her protector, still shaking from the beating she received. Abdima aptly held her sword ready in both hands, taking the situation seriously. 

 

“Just remember you brought this upon yourself.” Rona charged them, her right hand up in front of her like a shield, her left poised behind her, ready to lash out. Abdima struck out at the back of Rona’s hand, her blade not even blemishing the surface. The left hand swung around to ensnare her with the curved claws but Abdima bolted out of that trap. Once the cocky one had moved out of her way, Rona took another charge forward this time aiming towards Lune. Lune raised her sword to defend herself but the clash made her arms buckle and Rona’s hand forced the blade into Lune’s shoulder, making her screech and crumple underneath the weapon.

 

Abdima went to strike from behind, but a quick swipe from Rona’s free hand kept her at a distance. “Lune! Fucking fight back!” Abdima frustratingly barked at her teammate she couldn’t aid. She wasn’t used to enemies spotting their weak spots so easily, a chill of fear ran up her spine. 

 

Lune opened her eyes, hearing the command through her quick panicked breaths. “Fight… fight back.” Her eyes constricted to slits, the inhuman yellow color matching Rona’s. She backed out from her blade, lashing her hands out as they stretched, fingers shooting straight through Rona’s torso. Rona lifted one of her hands up and brought them down, severing the fingers and forcing the foreign objects out of her body. Lune bit her lip, letting more of her yoki flow, a second set of arms growing and protruding out from under her shoulderblades. Rona scoffed as she was charged at, simply wrapping a hand completely around the frail warrior and throwing her into her teammate.    
  


“Careful now, you’re going to go over your limit if you’re not mindful of your abilities. It’s painfully obvious your number does not reflect your experience.” Rona stood ready, knowing that the warrior’s mind was already consumed, she wasn’t coming back, especially not with the encouragement from her teammate.   
  
The two attacked as a pair, but although Lune was teetering on awakening it was grossly apparent she was not used to actual combat. For a warrior specially put on an anti-warrior special ops team, she was an extremely weak link. Abdima, however, was giving her quite the run around. She was releasing her own yoki, striking harder and faster, mustering the strength to partially slice through Rona’s defences, though nowhere near enough to hurt her. 

 

Lune screamed, frustrated at the fact she couldn’t land another hit, and let the floodgates open, her body contorting and growing, weapons protruding from her body all over. Unfortunately, just as soon as she began her awakening, it was ended with a claymore through the back of her skull. Through the confusion of the battle, Heslin had gotten to his feet and found his way behind the warrior completely vexed and distracted by his teammate. 

 

Rona straightened up, glancing over to Stephanie who had incapacitated Iris, though she was missing her right arm and had quite a few deep cuts on her, even a dagger in her back. Iris, however was much worse off, both legs severed at the thighs and her arms cut off, one at the elbow and the other at the shoulder. She almost felt bad knowing the only defensive warrior on their team was now dead, unable to aid them in healing. Rona decided the fight was over now and suppressed her yoki, her arms shrinking and slowly returning back to normal.

 

Abdima tossed her sword to the ground in defeat, grumbling about her useless teammates; she didn’t seem too shook up about her dead teammate, and she realized it was useless to fight against 3 warriors.

 

Stephanie walked over to Rona, though wary of Abdima’s presence. “Please don’t do that again. You had me worried you were going to awaken. Let’s get going, we’re going to need to rest a bit before we can look for Stella.”   
  
Rona smirked, “aww, you care about me.” She teased and received a swift but loving smack upside the head to make her shut up.

 

Heslin boasted to Delilah how he killed his first awakened being, and the two of them followed as the group headed out, chattering in disbelief that they actually helped; but not only that, they won!

 

Delilah got Rona’s attention as they walked, “So do you do that a lot? Change like that, I mean.”   
  
Rona shook her head, “No, never done it; but it felt right.”   
  
Stephanie huffed, “You pulled a stunt like that in the middle of a battle without any previous training? You’re a bigger idiot than I thought. That’s how people easily go over their limits, just like Lune.”   
  
Rona shrugged, “Edging isn’t anything new to me, so in a way I do have experience.”   
  
Heslin chuckled, but the other two didn’t catch what was so funny. 

 

Rona smirked but playfully sighed, “I know that it may have been an al-ARM-ing experience for you Steph, but I really have to give you a HAND and say that you HAND-led the situation pretty well for it being so high WRIST.”    
  
Stephanie groaned, “I get it, I’m missing my arm! I don’t know why this is such a hilarious concept to you.”   
  
Heslin snickered, “Sounds to me like she’s STUMPED.”

 

Stephanie had her sword to his throat before he finished his sentence. “One more joke about my missing limb and i’ll start making jokes about your missing head.”   
  
Rona shook her head and coaxed Stephanie back around and to continue walking. “Let’s keep moving, we need all the time we can get to regenerate your arm.”

 

Delilah and Heslin shared a knowing glance to each other, but kept quiet, just following the other warriors till it was time to make camp.

**Author's Note:**

> Damn it's hard to properly tag things and not drop spoilers.
> 
> Major love to all of you still reading this <3
> 
> After thought: This was supposed to come out a few days earlier but I wanted to have some commissioned art to present alongwith the story, but that looks like it might be a while, so i'll post that to my blog afterwords.


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